Abstract: The Union WAGE collection contains the office files of the organization. Types of materials include the minutes and correspondence
of the Executive Board, the organization's constitutions, convention documents, administrative records, membership documentation,
general correspondence, information on other feminist groups and the women's movement internationally, ephemera from Union
WAGE events, financial records, newspaper correspondence, membership opinion surveys, newsclippings, interchapter newsletters,
minutes and correspondence of local chapters, the records and ephemera from Union WAGE involvement with the Industrial Welfare
Commission, and a complete set of
Union WAGE newspaper, 1971-1982.

Location: Collection is available onsite.

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote
from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Labor Archives and Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

The office files of the organization Union WAGE (Women's Alliance to Gain Equality) were donated by the Data Center, Oakland,
California, with the assistance of Leon Sompolinsky, Data Center Archivist, on 4 April 1986; accession number 1986/022.

Processing Information

The collection was processed by Suzanne Forsyth, October 1986.

History

Union WAGE (Women's Alliance to Gain Equality) was founded on International Women's Day, March 8, 1971, at an educational
conference sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW), at the University of California, Berkeley. Union WAGE was
a politically non-partisan, non-profit organization for "working women" which included housewives, unemployed, retired, and
welfare women. The organization's purpose was to achieve "equal rights, equal pay, and equal opportunity" for working women.

Union WAGE was created at a workshop during the NOW conference entitled "Extending Protective Legislation to All Workers."
The panelists included future Union WAGE leaders Jean Maddox, president of the Office and Professional Employees Union, AFL-CIO,
Local 29, and Ann Draper, West Coast Union Label Director for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, AFL-CIO. By the
end of the panel discussion the participants all agreed on the necessity of a working women's feminist organization and voted
to reconstitute themselves as that organization.

Maxine Wolpinsky (now Maxine Jenkins), then an American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, field
organizer for Local 1695, was also a part of the NOW conference. She joined Union WAGE and served as newspaper editor for
the next three years.

The main groups which first made up Union WAGE were the Committee to Extend Protective Legislation to Men, a caucus of the
International Socialists; San Francisco State's Independent Campus Women; U.C. Berkeley's Graduate Sociology Women's Caucus;
and many members of the Office and Professional Employees Union Local 29. Although Union WAGE considered itself a national
organization, the bulk of its membership, as well as its headquarters was located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

One of the organization's main activities was publishing a bi-monthly newspaper,
Union WAGE, which focused on working women's issues from a feminist and labor movement perspective. Another focal point of Union WAGE
activity was the California Industrial Welfare Commission. Through the members' testimony, lobbying efforts and serving on
I.W.C. wage boards Union WAGE sought to represent the interests of working women. Issues they brought before the I.W.C. included
the need to preserve and extend protective legislation threatened by the Equal Rights Amendment, and raising the minimum wage
requirements. Union WAGE also sponsored educational conferences and events, and published literature for women workers. Topics
the organization covered included: organizing non-union workplaces; fighting sexism on the job and in the unions; preventing
job-related health hazards for women workers; fighting for rank-and-file control and democracy within the unions; and promoting
women's labor history.

Arrangement

The Union WAGE collection is divided into ten series. Within each series, material is separated by subject and, within each
subject, material is arranged chronologically. The only exception is Series IV, in which folders are arranged alphabetically.

Scope and Content

The Union WAGE collection contains the office files of the organization. Types of materials include the minutes and correspondence
of the Executive Board, the organization's constitutions, convention documents, administrative records, membership documentation,
general correspondence, information on other feminist groups and the women's movement internationally, ephemera from Union
WAGE events, financial records, newspaper correspondence, membership opinion surveys, newsclippings, interchapter newsletters,
minutes and correspondence of local chapters, the records and ephemera from Union WAGE involvement with the Industrial Welfare
Commission, and a complete set of
Union WAGE newspaper, 1971-1982.

The earliest materials contained in the collection are attendance sheets, newsclippings, Union WAGE Newsletters, and the program
of the conference where Union WAGE was founded, all dated 1971. The most recent materials are ephemera from benefits and conferences,
correspondence, and newsclippings, dating 1981-82. The bulk of the material spans the years 1972-1980.

Researchers will value the collection for documenting the attempts of feminists to address and deal with working class women's
issues and needs. The Union WAGE subject files give insight into issues of importance for feminists and working women of the
1970s and feminist organizing techniques of the 1970s. Of note in particular are the informal character of the organization
and its leadership, and the openness and self-criticism of the inter-chapter newsletters.

Material Cataloged Separately

The Union WAGE pamphlet collection, which includes both Union WAGE pamphlets and pamphlets published by other organizations,
has been transferred to the Labor Archives central print file. Union WAGE pamphlets contained in the print file: